The present invention pertains to telephony and computer systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for using a personal computer system to handle incoming telephone calls.
Advancements in telephony thus far have not provided an adequate solution to a problem which telephone users have encountered since the birth of the technologyxe2x80x94avoiding unwanted telephone calls. Consider the following scenario, which anyone who has a telephone has probably experienced: A person is at home eating dinner when the telephone rings. Because dinner time is a time of day when incoming telephone calls often are unwanted sales pitches, the person allows the answering machine to handle the call. After a few rings, the answering machine picks up, a brief period of silence ensues, and the call is disconnected. This scenario may be repeated a few minutes later, and then again a few minutes later, and so forth, much to the annoyance of the person, who is trying to eat his meal undisturbed.
Caller ID is a feature that is provided by telephone services and is sometimes useful for screening calls. However, even when caller ID information is available, a person receiving an incoming telephone call may not be familiar with the telephone number of the incoming call. That is often the case with unwanted calls, which often originate from an unfamiliar caller, as in the case of a telephone sales pitch. Telephone answering machines provide some filtering capability. However, aggressive telephone solicitors may call back repeatedly even after an answering machine has picked up, in the hope that a real person will eventually answer the telephone. Accordingly, what is needed is a technology that can easily and inexpensively be implemented n the home for enabling a person to conveniently filter out unwanted telephone calls.
The present invention includes a method and apparatus for managing a call filtering database. A telephone signal is received, and caller identification information in the telephone signal is identified. An entry is then created in the call filtering database based on the caller identification information.
Other features of the present invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description which follows.